So we’re driving across the Queensborough Bridge. I had just gone through one of only two Starbucks drive-thrus I’ve discovered in Metro Vancouver (I don’t go every day or anything. Just every other day. Ahem. Anyway…that’s not the point.) and I had indulgently bought Annie a kid’s size of milk to accompany my grande-decaf-soy-no whip-pumpkin-spice-latte-extra-hot-please.
Now normally – normally! – I have our travel mugs with us which I hand over to be rinsed with hot water and refilled in an effort to save us 15 cents, save the planet and avoid spills. Because if there is one thing that our Earth Destroyer 2003 does NOT need it’s more stains (remember that whole “having a baby and then hopping into the back seat thing“? Not good for your fabric seats. Just sayin’.) and if there is one thing that toddlers do VERY well, it is stain things.
Just ask my carpet.
But(!) on this day, I decide that she can handle it. After all, we’d just survived grocery shopping. Which is another post in itself. Oh, dear Lord. I’m signing back up for Spud and getting my groceries delivered all winter long, hallelujah and amen. So I was in dire need of a reward in a cup and she had earned a little something special as well.
We’re driving along and all of a sudden she yells “UH OH!” and I say “What? What happened?”
Silence.
“Did you take your straw out?”
Silence.
“Did you ….DROP your milk!?”
“Mumma. HELP!”
(Pause here for me to mutter all kinds of unholy things about silly mothers that will give their two year olds cups with straws in cars.)
I can’t turn around and help because, you know, I’m DRIVING. So I twist my head and sure enough, her hands are empty.
Great. There’s a full cup of milk on my floor now. Just fab.
We drive the rest of the way home. Every so often, Anne shrieks “HELP!” from the backseat and I patiently reply that I’ll clean it up when we get home …or when Daddy gets home, lucky guy.
We park the Earth Destroyer 2003. I get out and open her door.
And she’s got that cup of milk caught between her yellow rubber boots! It’s balanced right between them, perfectly upright. Legs fully extended, she’s holding that cup right between her Wellies and she has a very pained look on her face. A look that says “MY THIGHS ARE KILLING ME!”
